ShowMeDo Blog

Lucas Holland has joined us as a Club ShowMeDo author, his first series for Club-members is Batteries Included - The Python Standard Library.  Lucas has been authoring free Python videos inside ShowMeDo for a year.

We’re very happy to welcome him as a Club author and we’re excited to now be offering a greater range of introductory Python videos to Python beginners each week.

“Useful. It couldn’t be clearer.”, Gasto.

In this series Lucas spends 5 minutes per module giving the new Python user an overview of what’s in each module and how it should be used.  New episodes will be published over the coming weeks.

1. Series overview (Free)
2. The “sys” module
3. The “os” module
4. The “datetime” module [forthcoming]
5. The “urllib2″ module [forthcoming]
6. The “math” module [forthcoming]
7. The “re” module [forthcoming]
8. The “glob” module [forthcoming]
9. The “shutil” module [forthcoming]

Other recent Python videos include Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development, Python for Math Education, Database Programming, Google App Engine and pyWin32

The complete Python Beginners - Common Variables and Containers series is now on-line. This Club series is aimed at new Python programmers who want to get their heads around all of the common data-types and containers in Python.  Examples of common usage are given along with links for background information.

1. Overview (Variables and Containers) (Free)
2. Variables are Objects
3. Variable Scope
4. int and float
5. decimal
6. str(ings)
7. unicode
8. bool(eans)
9. list
10. set
11. dict
12. tuple
13. None
14. printing

We created this series to help guide new Pythonistas into the language based on feedback from our Club members.

“Great video, lots of good basic information to help me start learning Python. Easy to watch the videos and then open up an interactive prompt and try out the new features I just learned. I also like the web links for additional details.”

The Club videos are a part of our 330 Python tutorial screencasts, the majority are free and contributed by our open-source authors (all authors get free access to all the Club videos).  If you’ve got something to share, please come and join us - we’re friendly and we work to publicise great Python tools!

Other recent videos include What does Python Look Like?,  Agile Python/Pylons Development for pySvnManager,  Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development and Python for Math Education, Developing emol!.

Lucas has created the 4-part Programmierung mit Python for German speakers.  The current episodes are:

1. Zinsrechner
2. ToDoList-Manager
3. Grundlagen der GUI Progammierung mit wxPython
4. GUI Programmierung: Details

Whilst most of our 330 Python screencasts are in English, we have a small set of German-language screencasts.  We’re very open to supporting other spoken languages, demonstrating Python in a variety of languages seems to be a very sensible approach for advocacy.

Jiang Xin has authored a new 7-part series on using agile techniques, with the pylons framework, to build an SVN authz management tool called pySvnManager.

His series of screencasts take you through the problem, using test-driven development (TDD), unit testing and building an app using the pylons framework:

1. Background and deployment of pySvnManager
2. TDD for model development.
3. Code coverage and final pySvnManager model usage.
4. Create web application using pylons framework
5. View, controller and webpage design.
6. Web app authentication and unittest
7. Application configuration and make packages

These videos are a part of the 330 Python tutorial screencasts in ShowMeDo, many are produced by our open-source users.  Each contributor gets free access to Club ShowMeDo’s extra Python tutorials.

Recent Club videos include Python Web Programming, a friendly introduction to the Google App Engine,  Python Beginners - Loops and Iteration and Python Beginners - Common Variables and Containers.

Recent free videos include Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development and Python for Math Education.

Percious continues his series on Agile Development in Python with a 3rd screencast on Using Sphinx and Doctests to provide robust documentation.

“Sphinx is a fairly new package that people have been using to document their packages. Even the newest Python 2.6 documentation has been converted to sphinx. This demo shows how you can use sphinx to document your own program.“

Percious’ series is receiving great praise:

“Another great screencast - turning into a must-see series. With documentation development this easy I finally have no excuses. A good number of hours sweat condensed into 10 minutes. Thanks for saving a chunk of my life!”

The other two episodes in the series cover VirtualEnv, PasteScript, Nosetests and Coverage.  Other recent free screencasts include Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2 and Python for Math Education, these are a part of our 330 Python screencasts.

Some of the recent screencasts in our Club include Google App Engine and pyWin32 and plenty of material for new Python programmers.

For 7 months Erik has been building up the excellent Developing emol! screencast series for building a 3D molecule viewer from scratch.  In the current 24 episodes (which are a part of our 330 Python screencasts) you’ll find topics such as:

• Use Cases and design
• wxPython
• pyOpenGL
• Classes
• Bazaar and Launchpad
• Copyright and CC licensing

“As someone who is new to programming this series has really helped me in understanding the steps required in creating a project.  Thanks a lot! :)”

Other recent videos include Agile Python/Pylons Development for pySvnManager,  Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development, Python for Math Education, Loops and Iteration, Common Variables and Containers.

ericflo has begun a new Django screencast series entitled Setting Up a Django Development Environment.  The current two episodes cover:

1. Setting Up a Django Development Environment
2. Django Pagination

We’re very keen to receive new web-app screencasts, all contributors get free access to our beginner-focused Club and we work to publicise your efforts.  Videos on Django, TurboGears, Pylons and the like are very welcome!

Other recent videos include Making a Django Dev Environment,  TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development and Python for Math Education.  Recent beginner-Python videos include Common Variables and Containers, Loops and Iteration and What Does Python Look Like?.

We’ve added three new videos to Python Beginners - Common Variables and Containers.  This Club series is aimed at new Python programmers who want to get their heads around all of the common data-types and containers in Python.  Examples of common usage are given along with links for background information.

10 of the 14 episodes are published, the last four follow in the next two weeks:

1. Overview (Variables and Containers) (Free)
2. Variables are Objects
3. Variable Scope
4. int and float
5. decimal
6. str(ings)
7. unicode
8. bool(eans)
9. list
10. set
11. dict [to come]
12. tuple [to come]
13. None [to come]
14. printing [to come]

We created this series to help guide new Pythonistas into the language based on feedback from our Club members.

“Great video, lots of good basic information to help me start learning Python. Easy to watch the videos and then open up an interactive prompt and try out the new features I just learned. I also like the web links for additional details.”

The Club videos are a part of our 330 Python tutorial screencasts, the majority are free and contributed by our open-source authors (all authors get free access to all the Club videos).

Recent free videos include Agile Python/Pylons Development for pySvnManager,  Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development and Python for Math Education.

Gasto has created a neat two-part set entitled Python from Zero, as he describes it:

“Have you ever been frustrated with all the compiling process, and wished that it [all] just magically appeared after a pair of seconds of thinking of a feature.  Learn python, you will not regret it. You’ll be surprised how easy it is.”

In two episodes lasting 20 minutes Gasto gives you an introduction to prototyping simple code with Python and the use of lists and sets.

Thanks, it’s easy to understand! I want to know more now !!

These videos are a part of the 330 Python tutorial screencasts in ShowMeDo, many are produced by our open-source users.  Each contributor gets free access to Club ShowMeDo’s extra Python tutorials.

Recent free videos include Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development and Python for Math Education.

Recent Club videos include Python Beginners - Loops and Iteration, Python Beginners - Common Variables and Containers and An Introduction to Database Programming with Python.

Kirby Urner has added a 6th screencast on Python Math in Education, the latest is a presentation from Chicago Pycon 2008.  His series is Python for Math Teachers:

1. Getting Started
2. Looking Ahead
3. Subclassing for Beginners
4. A First Look at RSA
5. Working with Stickworks
6. Chicago Pycon 2008

These videos are a part of the 330 Python tutorial screencasts in ShowMeDo, many are produced by our open-source users.  Each contributor gets free access to Club ShowMeDo’s extra Python tutorials.

Recent free videos include Making a Django Dev Environment, TurboGears 2, Agile Python Development and Python for Math Education.

Recent Club videos include Python Beginners - Loops and Iteration, Python Beginners - Common Variables and Containers and An Introduction to Database Programming with Python.